All You Need is Love

Today I went to the John Lennon wall in Prague with one of my roomates, Kelsey, and three other girls I don't know as well, Anna, Yena and Fauna. We walked across the Charles Bridge, which I have been to but it's always nice and asked around until we found the wall nearby. It's beautiful and inspirational. The story I've heard and I don't know for sure or not if it's true, is during the communist times, those who rebelled would go to the wall and write John Lennon lyrics about peace and such during the night. The next day the communists would paint over this, but the rebels would return and decorate it all over again, this happening in a constant cycle until the fall of communism.
I'm really, really grateful I got to see something this powerful

New Kids on the Block

So, all of the new kids for the semester are here, they arrived on Saturday. They all seem very nice but I still don't have a definite opinion on whether or not they are awesome, I miss everyone from last semester A LOT.
There are only about 6 new boys, and they all look like each other, it's really weird. So far a majority of the girls seem really nice. Because I don't have the czech intensive course I haven't gotten to know the new kids very well but regular school starts in two weeks so I hope spend more time with them.
Other news, my roomate just got back from Germany today and we're so glad she's back. Hasn't been the same without her.
Miss you all back home!

Things to know about Prague

So, I've been in Prague, Czech Republic since August 2009, about 5 or so months now and here is a list of things I've learned about the country.

• There are no toilet seat covers in the bathroom
• some grocery stores, when you buy a fruit or a vegetable you are supposed to weigh it first on a machine and it pops out a sticker that you put on the produce, and then you buy it.
• most people only buy groceries for what they need that night, unlike Americans who stock up like it's the end of the world.
• when a man and a woman walk into a restaurant, he is supposed to go first as to protect the woman from the leering eyes of other men
• there are only sweet pickles in this country, I have only come across dill ones at McDonald's.
• McDonald's is better in the Czech Republic, all my buddies here from America agree with me.
• even if you speak a little Czech, all the people here who actually speak English would prefer for you to speak English because you are more likely to mess up the language than they are.
• tipping is optional, but it is growing into a more regular thing in this country.
• they love 80's and 90's music.
• Prague is 2 hours away from the German city of Dresden.
• the coldest month of the year is February.
• there really was a great King Wenceslaus (like in the Christmas song)
• Communism ended in 1989 but a small percentage of voters still vote for the communist party, most of those people didn't even live during it.
• 18 krowns = 1 us dollar.
• Gulas is actually a Hungarian dish, adopted by the Czechs, but it is a traditional Czech meal.
• Prague is the largest city in the Czech Republic, followed by Brno. When Slovakia was once a part of Czechoslovakia, Bratislava was the second largest city. The two countries split around 1991 or 1992.
• Charles University on Prague (the one I'm attending) is the oldest university in Europe.
• Czechs are very proud of their "culture".
• American hygiene is a joke to most Europeans.
• 59% of Czechs are agnostic or atheist.
• Czechs are the world's heaviest consumers of beer.
• I have yet to see a squirrel the entire time I've been here, but there are pigeons everywhere.

More to come later, this is just to start you off.